Railroads provide both efficiency and economy in passenger and freight transportation. Like other transportation modes, however, they are prone to various problems. Statistics show that over the course of this century, the average carload and trainload tonnage has increased significantly. There is also an increasing concentration of traffic on fewer main line tracks. The average length of haul has also risen. Unfortunately, these trends have not been offset with a proportional increase in the amount of new rail laid. Consequently, the stress on rails and fatigue related failures may continue to increase. With the new demands, it is important to assess the rail integrity by detecting rail defects nondestructively and speedily.
Typical defects often found in railroad tracks include transverse and longitudinal defects in the rail head, web defects, base defects, surface defects as well as other miscellaneous damage such as head wear, corrosion, crushed head, burned rail, bolt hole cracks, head and web separation.
Nondestructive evaluation of rail tracks may be approached by continuous monitoring or detailed inspection. In the context of rail assessment, continuous monitoring results in global evaluation of the rail whereas detailed inspection focuses on a particular area to locate and/or characterize a defect in detail.
In continuous monitoring, some techniques for inspection of rail flaws at an intermediate speed are currently available, but the technology lacks efficient monitoring techniques at a high speed comparable to the speed of a passenger car. One of the limitations on speed is the need for the transducer to be in contact with the rail. Furthermore, existing detailed inspection techniques have limited capabilities, primarily due to poor sensor performance and the requirement of contact with the rail surface.
Currently, surface defects are detected by means of a device called a track circuit. This device uses the track as part of an electric circuit and uses the resistivity of the rail as an indication of surface discontinuities. Another approach is the use of ultrasonic probes in contact with the track surface by a rolling wheel. These techniques require contact with the sensor and the rail. Therefore, they are not quite suitable for high-speed monitoring.
Improved inspection systems are needed in many other applications, for example, in which there is relative motion between the system and medium to be inspected such as conveyors, cables, ropes and roadbeds. Presently inspection techniques tend to be slow and not so reliable because they typically use a change in the amplitude of the probe signal to identify a defect or flaw. Amplitude data is not easily repeatable or reliable.